For 50 years, garage has been the place to be on Election Day

Tuesday

Nov 6, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Victoria Gribaudo didn't have a single costumed trick-or-treater ring her doorbell last week. She hasn't had a kid knock on her door for Halloween in decades, not since her own three grown children were young.

Lori Gilbert

Victoria Gribaudo didn't have a single costumed trick-or-treater ring her doorbell last week. She hasn't had a kid knock on her door for Halloween in decades, not since her own three grown children were young.

Folks will be making their way in earnest to her Peltier Road home today, though.

For some 50 years, Gribaudo has volunteered her place as a polling spot for voters in Acampo.

Her wood-paneled garage, absolutely devoid of the usual garage clutter, will be set up with chairs, tables and voting booths today.

For 13 hours, she and six others will spend their time making sure the democratic process is carried out, a process that will be duplicated in thousands of polling places across the country.

In this little rural location, surrounded by vineyards, voters will benefit from the generosity of Gribaudo, a diminutive woman of 89 who giggles easily.

Her devotion to the voting process isn't born of any great sense of patriotism or duty, although it does give her satisfaction to do her part.

It began 54 years ago when a friend asked her to help at the polling station at a local elementary school. When the school closed and a new location was needed, her friend suggested the Gribaudo home. The 60-acre property that was once a dairy run by her late husband, Ernie, and now is home to rows of zinfandel grapes, is ideal as a polling station. A detached two-door garage sits next to a beautiful brick-front home, and a paved, half-circle driveway allows for plenty of parking.

Gribaudo, who for years served as the polling station's inspector, the top position, made the day a social event. She'd organize a potluck among poll workers and provided the main dish. In down time, she and her co-workers would play cards, her favorite pastime.

When computers were brought in for elections, she stopped serving as inspector.

"I took the easy way out," Gribaudo said.

She doesn't have a computer at home, and wasn't about to undergo the training required to learn the voting computers.

"I'm too old to learn," she said, then laughed her easy laugh.

She'll work as a clerk during today's election, just as she did 54 years ago.

She doesn't remember the participants in that election.

"I think it was Hoover," she cracked.

Actually, her first election was in 1958, so it wasn't a presidential event.

The first presidential election for the county's longest-standing poll worker saw John F. Kennedy defeat Richard M. Nixon in 1960.

Although the winner wasn't declared until the following day, Gribaudo doesn't remember the election as being particularly exciting. She doesn't describe any election that way, at least not while watching voters in action.

She anticipates more people voting absentee this year. Her own neighbor, whose home is just across the road, will stop by at some point to turn in her absentee ballot. That's easier than driving the 15 to 20 minutes to Clements, where her assigned voting place is.

"There are three polling places within two miles of here," Gribaudo said.

That her neighbor should have to travel so far to one is just one thing Gribaudo would change about voting.

"The money it costs to run an election, I don't see why they don't do it all absentee," Gribaudo said. "I think they'd save so much money. The inspector, I think, gets $160 and we all get $100, and there are seven of us. Look at the money for just one polling place. To me it would save so much if they go absentee, but I don't know if there's crooks that would take over if they did."

Her polling place has never had an irregularity or commotion caused by voters. Instead, it's been a site where she could visit with old friends and neighbors stopping by to do their civic duty.

One voter always brings the workers cookies. Another brings them apples.

Other than that, folks stop in, cast their ballots and leave.

When 8 p.m. strikes, she and her fellow workers quickly disassemble the booths and head their separate ways.

Gribaudo said she doesn't remember any great conversations or discussions about voting, but then starts talking about her mother, an Italian immigrant who arrived as a young mother. She studied to pass the citizenship test, and it took two tries before she succeeded. Once she did, she couldn't wait to vote. She rightfully took pride in having the opportunity, making her way to the local elementary school to cast her ballot. In doing so, she modeled, without a word, how important the process is.

Feats great and small - from serving in the military to offering one's home as a place to cast a ballot - are done by regular folks so the rest of us can have our say.